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Wednesday 30 June 2010

Daily Round-Up: iPhone Antenna Issue [ 30-06-2010 17:45 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Gizmodo, Engadget, MacRumours Translation by: Paul Smith

It's that time of day again ... iPhone antenna problem hour! Today we have various snake-oil fixes for the antenna issue; Apple's refusing to consider free bumpers for affected customers, and Apple searching for antenna engineers.

The 'Fixes'

It's not really surprising that in response to the antenna issue various fixes have been suggeste dover the past few days and they've run the gamut of the predictable to the bizarre to the horrifying. Some have suggested wearing rubber gloves when using the handset, others thata coating of nail polish (yes nail polish!) on your iPhone's antenna will rectify the problem to Steve Job's own famous suggestion of holding the phone differently. Someone even created a mock-up jokingly suggesting that you simply have half your left hand removed. For those intent on keeping their hands intact the suggestion of adhusting your micro-SIM card might have been more appealing.

The basic idea behind the suggestion was that the micro-SIM card, in touching the sid eof the phone with its contact, was somehow being shorted out and causing the signal to drop. Despite an extensive thread on the subject over at MacRumours Engadget tried it out and came to the conclusion that it was hokum.They even tried using electrical tape to make sure the micro-SIm wasn't making contact, but to no avail. So if the micro-SIm fix turned out to be bogus what else might you try? How about Vinyl Stickers? Using the tongue in cheek advertising slogan "Reception Problems? There's a wrap for that" the vinyl sticker essentially prevents your skin from making contact with the iPhone. The skins cost $10 a piece, considerably cheaper than the Bumpers Apple has been flogging to address the problem.

Recruitment Drive

Apple themselves have been busy bees by the looks of things, posting up some recruitment notices for antenna engineers. There are three jobs in total going each for the same position of antenna engineer with the specificed field being listed as the 'iPad/iPhone'. The interesting thing, apart from the fact that Apple are advertising for these positions at all, is that the jobs were posted up on 23rd June, the day before the launch of the iPhone and the day that reports of antenna problems with the iPhone 4 first started to appear. Is it just coincidence? We think we'll let you decide that for yourself ...

No Bumpers ... They Really Meant It

You've probably read about the leaked Apple Care document addressing the antenna issue that we mentioned yesterday. Well even if you have you may have missed something interesting near the bottom of the document, namely a very emphatic instruction that Bumpers should not be given out for free to customers who have been affected by antenna problems. Indeed the memo itself uses capitals and bold highlighting to emphasise this point. In other words Apple are saying that they do not cosnider there to actually be a problem with the antenna that would necessitate action on Apple's behalf. That point is reinforced with the instruction that warranty servicing is not to be performed for antenna issues arising from conatct with the human hand. That doesn't bode well for iPhone 4 owners it has to be said; not only is the much rumoured firmware fix for this issue not appearing as foretold, but Apple look to be sticking their heads in the sand.

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All Galaxy S Handsets To Get Froyo Update [ 30-06-2010 15:37 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: Engadget Translation by: Paul Smith

The Froyo update wagon just keeps on rolling of late; first it was Google's own in the form of the Nexus One, then HTC came out saying that most of their 2010 lineup, including the Desire and Legend, would be seeing Froyo as early as next month. Now it's the turn of Samsung who have confirmed that all the iterations of the Galaxy S will be receiving the update to Froyo. Ofcourse, as is so often the case with these things, Samsung were less than specific on exactly when the updates would be forthcoming, just that Froyowould be rolling out to the relevant handsets later this year. American network Sprint has said though that their Galaxy S device, the Epic, will be receiving an update to Froyo fairly soon so perhaps other devices on other networks shan't be too far behind? Hre's hoping anyway. At any rate all the Galaxy S handsets are to be shipped with Android 2.1 (Eclair) so they aren't too far behind the curve unlike some other handsets e.g. the Sony Ericsson X10.

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X10 Gets Updates ... No It's Not Android 2.1 [ 30-06-2010 15:06 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: SE-NSE Translation by: Paul Smith

Mention the word 'update' to owners of Sony Ericsson's X10 and their minds will most probably leap straight to images of an upgrade to Android 2.1. Unfortunately today's announced update isn't a new version of Android (that's stills cheduled for September), but rather a firmware upgrade that addresses performance issues and introduces a new back-up feature. The update promises to improve responsiveness in the UI in general as well as specifically mentioning messaging and the camera. The back-up feature is being touted as meaning users won't have to loose all their settings as well as the standard inclusion of information e.g. contacts, etc. Some X10 users, in 'selected' markets will also see the addition of premium apps and games in PlayNow. The statement from Sony Ericsson's Launch Blog is below:

"This update focuses on improving the general performance, speed and responsiveness of Xperia X10. For example, there are speed improvements in messaging tasks and camera UI. In addition we add a free back up and restore application so you’ll never lose your settings and information. In selected markets, PlayNow™ with premium apps and games will also be added."

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Xbox Games To Be Ported to Win Phone 7 With 4 Lines of Code [ 30-06-2010 15:04 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: TechRadar Translation by: Paul Smith

Microsoft looks to be seeting itself up to try and take the lead in mobile gaming with the launch of its Windows Phone 7 platform later this year. It's been known for a while now that Windows Phone 7 will use the same XNA framework that is used for building Xbox Arcade games and Oded Ran, Microsoft's head of consumer marketing for Windows Phone, is hoping this will give the company the lead in the mobile gaming space. It will be very easy to port games to Windows Phone 7 according to Ran, in fact involving the addition of just a fe wlines of code "Just four lines of code changed an Xbox Live Arcade game to a Windows Phone 7 game in a recent publisher test". Ran didn't actually mention the game in question, but it certainly sounds very promising and he did confirm that Microsoft will be speaking with its game publishers on Arcade Live to get them to port their content to Windows Phone 7. If it is in fact as easy as 4 line sof code then Windows pHone 7 users can look forward to some pretty impressive gaming numbers in terms of game availability. Apple has been making some major inroads with the range of games available for their iOS powered devices, but Microsoft might just skip ahead here.

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